for more on the larger impact of the scandal let's bring in the foreign policy expert, james traub. mr. traub, you usually inform us about deeply important things going on in afghanistan iraq, around the world. now we're talking about e-mails and tawdry behavior. >> it is like a novel. i'm reading the kind of novel i don't normally read. >> eliot: we know you read them but that's okay. >> yeah. it's just -- it's like watching a car pileup, right? you really think i don't want to know this. you keep watching, reading. you love it. but how much of this matters? how much does it matter to us? not to holly petraeus. does it matter to us that david petraeus had an affair with paula broadwell. allegedly it does because he's the head of the c.i.a. and he could be blackmailed. well that's like boris and natasha stuff to me. this must have been true. it was true in the 1950s. who's going to be blackmailing him? the russians or the chinese are going to say we're going to tell the world you had an affair or otherwise please give us confidential information? then fine, go ahead and tell them. s